Tuesday, March 26, 2013

NEWS: State House overrides Governor's veto of Religious Freedom Act

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 26, 2013

LEXINGTON, KY--The Family Foundation tonight said that the vote to override
Gov. Steve Beshear's veto of the Religious Freedom Act by the Kentucky House of
Representatives was not only a victory for religious freedom in the state, but
"a referendum on the fraudulent claims of the ACLU and the Fairness Alliance.
The least we should expect about a debate as important as this one is that a
bill be accurately portrayed."

"First we were told that if we believed in traditional marriage we were
bigots. Now there are people saying that it is bigoted to believe in religious
freedom. The list of things religious people are told are unacceptable seems to
grow longer by the day."

Cothran said that opponents repeatedly misrepresented the nature of the bill. "The
ACLU and the Fairness Alliance, along with a compliant liberal media, distorted
this bill beyond recognition. The magnitude of this vote should send a message
to these groups that this kind of deception is not appreciated by the majority
of the state's elected lawmakers."

Cothran said the bill merely reinstituted the long-standing standard of
religious protection the Kentucky Supreme Court abandoned in October of last
year. Despite being well aware of this, he said, these groups decided to portray
as some kind of threat to civil rights. Despite being unable to cite a single
instance of any civil right being threatened during the many years the standard
this bill reimposes was in effect, he said, they were able to convince a handful
of lawmakers that the bill was a dangerous bill.

"We hope the opponents of HB 279 will do a gut check and realize that lies
and distortions don't always work."